The Problem With Blog Templates

All last week I've been working like a dog for my client. Not because she is pushing, but because for some reason I've been unable to stop.

I installed WordPress and needed plugins, got the menu right and the widgets, got seo-friendly permalinks, fine tuned the settings. And now all I need is the perfect theme for the customer to like:

• It should be cute as if done for kids, but be serious enough for adults to browse.
• It should have green and yellow, but not too yellow in a theme.
• It shouldn't look like a blog.
• It should be seo friendly and user friendly.
• It should look unique.

The list sounds impossible enough as it is, but now add to it the main problem hunting 90% of templates. See, the templates are either done by graphic artists, by bloggers, or by opportunists.

Graphic artists knows how to make a template pretty, but have no clue about the technical side of blogging: search engine optimization, accessibility, load time. Sometimes they don't even bother with widgets. They just overload a template with graphics and that's about it.

Bloggers, on the other hand, pay a lot of attention to the technical stuff. They make widget-ready, seo-optimized, light themes by using basic layouts and minimum of graphics. Unfortunately, they are often color-blind and have no idea about accessibility either.

Opportunist are the worst kind. They grab simple templates, change them a little bit, load with heavy graphic / photo headers, put their encrypted monetized links in a footer, and then they spread those templates without even testing them properly in all popular browsers.They don't care about anything but their golden links sprouting on the Internet.

That's why I use standard templates on two of my Blogger's blogs -- I don't want to bother with fixing someone's design and coding errors. I have enough of that nonsense with the WordPress templates.

Small Victories

I thought that a small victory would be motivational and inspirational. You know, a little one would inspire to fight for a big one... No such luck.

I got pretty good traffic on my main site, I got traffic on my second site that I just started reluctantly promoting last week, and I got a new client with a big project. That should be motivational, shouldn't it?

Maybe, if it happened 3 month ago, it would feel different. But after I already lost momentum, a small thing can't bring it back.

On the other hand, perhaps, a big momentum isn't a requirement for moving ahead and eventually winning big. Perhaps, a big momentum is like a Big Romantic Love: great to have, but most people live without it and some even live happily.